Archive for the ‘Brockway’ tag

Yes, I know: Your first impulse upon seeing this 1930s Brockway cab for sale on Hemmings.com is to turn it into a hot rod of some sort. Mine was too. Unless it has some sort of sentimental value, it would likely be more work than it’s worth to actually restore this as a heavy-duty truck based on what little is left of it, and anybody restoring a Brockway will probably find little of use here. I probably wouldn’t go hog wild hot rodding it, though; I certainly wouldn’t build it rat rod style, chopped and dropped to a worm’s eye view. Instead, I’d probably build an appropriately sized under-1-ton pickup around it, something in the style of the Mack Jr., but leave the door and cab lettering just as it is. What would you do with it?

There was an Antique Truck Club of America gathering recently that was really cool, even though it was blazing hot. The club’s Western Massachusetts Chapter organized an early-season show in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, which drew a slew of vintage rigs.

This is East Coast. That’s why one brand of truck, Brockway, probably outnumbered every other nameplate at the event. For some families, one of these great trucks from Cortland, New York, isn’t enough. Rich Misterka of Amherst, Massachusetts, owns the lovely two-axle 1977 Brockway 758 pictured above. His son, Mike, is keeper of the 1973 Brockway 361 dump truck below, nicknamed Mushy, just as he is. Like this stuff? We’re running a truck history section now, every month, in Hemmings Classic Car.

Apparently so. The folks at All Over Albany spotted this Brockway bus over in Green Island in the possession of a truck collector. The Brockway’s story includes the obvious time spent as a school bus, but also includes a stint as a college student’s mobile home, which is almost obligatory in a school bus’s subsequent history, doncha think?

I must’ve stumbled upon the box with all the photos for the B section in the May 1978 issue of Hemmings Motor News, and that section that month had a whole lotta interesting cars. For example, the 1934 BSA three-wheeler, a two-seater with a boattail body, advertised as being in original condition, and selling for $4,000 out of Cornwall, England. If you wanted photos of it, you had to send the seller $2.

This is a very nice car that went to the USA in the end and is still there as far as I know. It was very original and not messed around. The run of things is that the better prices are obtained abroad (mostly Europe rather than US recently), so the Brits back here have to get busy sweeping up all the barn bits and turning them into nice cars, so that they can go abroad…

Thanks, Rich and Graham.

You had to send the seller $3 (bills only, please) for pictures of this Bristol 404, also being sold out of England, though in this case out of Knutsford, Cheshire. The ad described it as “one of the very very rare short chassis business man’s express” versions of the Bristol and claimed it had only ever been serviced at Bristol Cars; $12,350 would’ve bought it.

At first glance, one would think Rolls-Royce or Bentley (and one would also notice the printing junk stuck to the picture – sorry about that), but one would be wrong. Instead, it’s a 1925 Beverley-Barnes eight-cylinder, allegedly one of 15 such chassis built. the Coral Gables, Florida, seller was asking $16,000 for it.

The killer Bs continue with this Brockway, circa 1950, complete with nine-foot snowplow, that the Borough of Montgomery, Pennsylvania, put out a request for bids on.

The Bs run out, though, with this Maserati Mistral Spyder, a dashing little car with 38,000 miles offered for just $15,500 out of Roanoke, Virginia.

We also spotted this late 1950s Formula Junior Grand Prix racer, “believed to have belonged to Mexican racing driver Rodriguez,” the seller stated. Apparently, the engine was a Rytune DKW, serial number 88610113-1, and the chassis a Rytune Scorpion, serial number 500S-3-EX, all available for $1,900 out of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania.

Finally, we spotted this giant hand creeping up on some sort of brass-era car.

Fans of the husky brand won’t want to miss the eighth annual Brockway Truck Show in Cortland, New York, August 11

Brockway, a distant memory to many, is regardless one of the great names in American truck manufacturing. It was the offspring of a wagon-making firm originally established in 1851 by William Brockway in Homer, a town in central New York. Before its final rigs were assembled in 1977, Brockway had justly earned a reputation as one of the industry’s toughest, hardest-working commercial vehicles.

Once Brockway started building trucks in earnest, it headquartered its operations in Cortland, New York. That’s where the Twin Tier Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society has logically decided to conduct its eighth annual Brockway Truck Show, set for Saturday, August 11. The day’s action will begin at 8:30 a.m., when a parade of restored trucks leaves the Brockway Museum in downtown Cortland for the show site, the Cortland County Fairgrounds. Appropriately, there will also be a showing of Siberian Husky dogs, the inspiration for the famous Brockway mascot.

The 7th running of the annual Brockway Truck Show is slated for August 12 in Cortland, NY
photo courtesy www.brockwaytrucks.org

It’s been three decades since defunct truck-maker Brockway built heavy-duty haulers in Cortland, N.Y., but the company’s faithful still gather there annually to pay homage to the rugged trucks.

This year, the 7th running of the annual Brockway Truck Show is slated for August 12 and will once again boast a benefit auction-the proceeds of which will go toward the construction of a Brockway museum in Cortland.
The last Brockway slated for export to Iran outfitted with a Detroit Diesel engine, a 15-speed Road Ranger and 55,000-pound rears, was finished on June 8, 1977. Parent company Mack had already closed Brockway’s plant in Cortland by then, with an eye toward liquidating the company’s assets, and the truck, along with 44 others, was assembled in a warehouse in Miami, Florida.